Flora and Fauna of Ukraine

1. Flora and Fauna of Ukraine Ukraine’s flora and fauna are rather rich, for Ukraine’s climate is appropriate for many species of animal and plants.

2. Forests of UkraineForests of UkraineAs for the forests, Ukraine has deciduous and coniferous trees, like pine, fir-tree, oak, birch and beech. All the forests are valuable not just for their timber, but also for mushrooms and berries, medical herbs growing there.

3. The wildlife of the country • The wildlife of the country amazes with diversity and beauty. There are hundreds of species of birds, plants and animals in Ukraine. Ukrainian steppes and forests are inhabited by wolves and foxes, badgers and deer, elks and hamsters, field mice and so on. Some of the animals were brought here from other corners of the world and have acclimatized successfully. Among them some fur animals are: mink, musk-rat, silver-black fox and others. Today ostrich farms are wide-spread all over the country.

4. Wolves • In Ukraine the wolf is widespread everywhere. Especially greater concentration of the wolf is observed to Polesye. Length of a body of 105-160 sm, weight – 30-70 kg. The wolf – very close animal, on districts is guided mainly by means of sense of smell and hearing, vision is developed more poorly, and still at night sees better a dog. The basic food to wolves serve wild and house artiodactyl: roe deer, a wild boar, a deer, a hare, etc. the Wolf causes huge damage to the hunting facilities. They form the wolf flight and very effectively hunt together, extracting even such large animals, as an elk. The hunting area of wolves reaches 50 – 60 km in radius. Speed of run of the wolf about 80 km at an o'clock. Hunting for the wolf is one of the most complex and interesting.

5. Foxes • The fox is very widely widespread on all territory of Ukraine. Lives in all environment. Length of a body up to 90 sm, weight 6 – 10 kg. Possesses extremely thin hearing, sense of smell and fine vision. The Most part of year is conducted with a single way of life. To hunt in twilight in the evening and early in the morning, however to see the fox it is possible at any time.

6. Badgers • Badger is the common name for various heavily built, carnivorous, burrowing mammals in the family Mustelidae, characterized by short legs, long snouts, well-developed anal scent glands, plantigrade locomotion, long, grizzled hair, and long, sharp, non-retractile claws on each of the five digits of the front feet. The family Mustelidae also includes the similar ferrets, weasels, wolverines, otters, stoats, and fishers, with the badgers being those mustelids in the three subfamilies of Melinae, Mellivorinae, and Taxideinae, depending on the taxonomic scheme. Eight extant species, placed in five genera, are recognized as badgers. • Badgers have a fierce reputation when defending themselves from predators, and thus the adult badger has few natural enemies, although they may be taken by large carnivores, such as wolves and lynx. However, the young are taken by a number of carnivores and birds of prey, including foxes, eagles, and wolverines. Badgers consume a wide variety of animal and plant life, including earthworms, insects, small vertebrates, and roots and fruit. They thus contribute to terrestrial systems as part of food chains. For humans, they have been hunted and trapped for the meat and hair.

7. Deer • There are inhabited mostly European and spotted deer in Ukraine. They live in forests of different areas, and they are kept in small groups. Deer are found almost in all hunting areas. • They eat plant food. European deer live in the Carpathian region in central Ukraine, and in Southern regions. Spotted deer are in the middle zone of Ukraine, Kiev, Cherkassy, Vinnitsa and Nikolayev region. Spotted deer is less than the European. Spotted deer horns weigh from 2 to 6 kg. Spotted deer is reddish-brown color with white spots on the sides in summer. Horns of the European average deer weighs between 6 and 8 kg. In Carpathians, the deer live in the dense spruce forests and hunting them is very difficult, as you have a lot of walking in the mountains to find, track down and get a nice trophy deer. In central Ukraine deer are found in pine and mixed forests. In southern regions are found in steppe and forest areas, where most exposed areas and the difficulty of hunting is that it is very difficult to get close to deer, as he sees all around

8. Elks • The elk or wapiti (Cervus canadensis) is one of the largest species of the Cervidae or deer family in the world, and one of the largest land mammals in North America and eastern Asia.

9. Rivers and Lakes • Rivers and lakes of Ukraine are rich for fish: carp and pike, perch and bream are among them. In vast Ukrainian steppes such trees as oak, willow, ash and elm are found. Squirrels, hares, foxes and other small animals live on these territories.

10. Unique flora and fauna of the Carpathians • National Parks in the Carpathian region are places of legends and legendary sights, some of them listed by UNESCO and unmatched for bird life. Several unique species of our hoofed friends roam the extensive plains the roll up to the mountains in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia.

11. National natural reserves. Ukraine has a great diversity of natural landscapes and wildlife. For this reason areas of Ukraine have been declared protected areas, nature reserves and National parks. National Parks in Ukraine are vital for preserving large natural areas and provide the country with great opportunities to develop ecotourism. We discuss the protected areas and National Parks of Ukraine under the headings: Mixed Forest area; Forest-Steppe area; Steppe area; Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains and Crimean Mountains.